Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

Tanzania Becomes First Country To Use Self-Destructing Syringes; Designer Hopes Others Will Follow Suit

"Tanzania is to become the first country in the world to move exclusively to using syringes that self-destruct after a British entrepreneur played the health minister undercover footage of children being injected with used needles," the Guardian reports. "Marc Koska, the designer of an auto-disable syringe and founder of a charity called Safe-Point," who went to the Tanzanian government with the video, "hopes to persuade four other countries in east Africa to follow suit -- Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda -- before he takes on the rest of the world," the newspaper writes.

"Although auto-disable syringes are now as cheap to make [as traditional syringes], it involves changing over the production process, which is expensive," the Guardian notes, adding, "Companies also sell fewer syringes in the long run -- because people get well." According to the newspaper, Koska "has now sold three billion of them, and last month, he finally signed a contract with the world's biggest syringe-maker to produce his auto-disable design" (Boseley, 10/28).

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